Chapter 38 - Chapter 36: A Story of Counterattacking
"At first, everything was going well... at first. We had a large amount of firearms and ammunition brought out from the police station, and there were many hunters with guns in this village. We rescued survivors and families in the city, and I returned to this village, my birthplace."
Yamato stood in front of me as I sat on the ground and began to speak quietly. Neither the residents gathered in the underground bunker nor the guards surrounding me opened their mouths. The only noisy thing is the infected howling in the pit at my feet since a while ago.
I thought about saying a sarcastic remark or two, but I stopped. If I said such a thing, I might be beaten up by the guards, and above all, now is not that kind of atmosphere.
"Truly, everything was proceeding so smoothly at first that it was scary. Although I say so myself as a local, this village is really in a remote backwater. Thanks to that, the only refugees who came were people like us who knew this village, and the infected didn't attack. We set up a warning line around the village, plowed the fields, and began a self-sufficient life. At that time, I thought we could live in peace until the situation settled."
But it was naive. Yamato continued.
The trigger was something trivial. No matter how abundant the weapons and ammunition were and how food was self-sufficient, it wasn't like other supplies were in this village. Because it was originally a depopulated village, many daily necessities were purchased from a mobile sales vehicle that visited once a week, but after the outbreak in Japan, those mobile sales stopped visiting. In the only clinic in the village, medical supplies were originally insufficient, and as for fuel, it's unreliable with only the amount at the gas station. For that reason, people who had evacuated from the urban areas often headed to the nearby town to procure supplies.
However, the peaceful days of this village (only compared to elsewhere, though) did not last long. One of the people who had gone out for supply procurement became an infected within the village and ran wild.
Later, when the body was examined, the man who had developed the symptoms apparently had a bite wound on his arm. He must have been attacked by an infected while out in the city for supply procurement, but the truth is unknown. The man who became an infected intruded into the village gym, where children who had evacuated from the city were living together.
Many of the people who evacuated from the city had no connection to this village, and so many were living in the elementary school that had been closed. Among them, children and women, who are weak, were living together in the spacious gym so they could be easily protected, but that became their downfall.
The infected easily intruded into the gym, and a literal hellscape unfolded in the gym. Children fleeing in confusion, and the infected, who were once the same humans, chasing them. Those who luckily escaped death developed the symptoms themselves and attacked the women and children. The infected escaped the gym and attacked the elderly who were cooped up in their homes.
Even if infected with the virus, one does not immediately develop symptoms. There are individual differences in the time from infection to development; some people turn into an infected in just a few seconds, while others take more than half a day to finally develop symptoms. However, it is certain that if infected, one cannot avoid developing symptoms no matter what is done.
When the guard finally suppressed the infected, there were about 30 people who had been bitten but had not yet developed symptoms. However, it was clear that there was no means to prevent the development, as research institutions overseas had all failed in developing anti-viral drugs or vaccines.
"To prevent everyone from becoming infected, the only way at that time was to shoot them... But we couldn't do that. How can you kill your own son, your own daughter, with your own hands?"
"So you people confined those who hadn't yet developed symptoms in this pit. And even after they turned into infected, for the selfish reason that you don't want your children to die, you're using humans as bait."
The infected are different from the zombies that appear in movies; they are merely humans who have lost their reason and become ferocious. If the amount of bleeding is high, they will eventually die, and if they starve, their movements will become dull and they will eventually starve to death.
However, the problem is that the infected only eat living humans. For some reason, even if there are dogs or cats in front of them, the infected do not touch them. But when they see a human, they change their attitude, chase them anywhere, and eventually prey on them. They only eat humans, and moreover, they don't eat corpses.
"Yeah, that's right. We want the children to live, in whatever form. Even if that results in driving other humans to their deaths."
"You're crazy. So you've been intentionally luring humans from outside and feeding them to these things? I can't believe you people are sane."
"I know that what we are doing is against the path of humanity. I know that even if the world is in chaos, it's not something that would be permitted as an emergency escape. But we have to keep our daughters alive until the day a treatment to return infected humans to normal is discovered."
I had no choice but to laugh. You won't kill your daughters even if they are infected, but it's okay to kill infected who were strangers? To keep your daughters alive, it's okay to kill any number of innocent humans?
"You people are huge idiots; a treatment will never be found. When the infected outside this village have all starved to death and reconstruction begins, how are you going to hide these things? Are you going to kidnap people from outside and feed them? Eventually, this will be found out by those outside the village, and when that happens, the police or JSDF will come and shoot every last infected. The only difference is whether they die sooner or later. I'm not the smart type, but I can understand at least that much."
"I won't let that happen. If the government says they will kill these children, I will resist using any means."
"Even though you're an adult and a police officer, aren't you an idiot? Accept reality. Your daughter has become an infected who has lost her reason, and she thinks of you as nothing but food. Give it up already and kill her."
"Don't mess with me!"
Yamato roared, and the air vibrated. The gazes of the people gathered in the underground bunker focused on Yamato all at once, and I didn't miss that gap. Sitting cross-legged, I secretly moved my tied hands that I had thrown out over my sneakers and pulled out the folding knife I had tucked into the slight gap at the arch of my foot. Fortunately, there was no sign of being noticed. While hiding the knife in my palm, I glared at Yamato.
"Yeah, that's right, I'm well aware that we are wrong. But you know, I'm a human before I'm a police officer! And my daughter is only 10 years old; her life is just about to become the most fun, so it's too pitiful to let her die at a time like this. You can say things like 'kill them' so easily because you've never been a parent."
"The one messing around is you! You people are running away from the reality in front of you. If I were your child, I'd want you to kill me before my reason blew away and I attacked other people. I think so, and my mom must have had the same thought. That's why I killed my mom, so she wouldn't kill anyone else."
I had also inadvertently started shouting back. I couldn't forgive the fact that they hadn't killed their infected families.
I didn't want to kill my mom if possible, but in that situation, there was no other choice. My mom, who was infected, had her lower body eaten, and was crawling on the ground, didn't look human at all.
Even if I had succeeded in making her regain her reason, my mom would have died soon from excessive bleeding. Even if she had miraculously held onto her life, what would my mom have done if she knew she might have killed someone? Considering that, in that place, there was no means I should have taken other than the choice to kill my mom.
But the people here, despite being adults, are saying tearful things like they don't want to kill their families and are running away from taking matters into their own hands against the infected. Even though I, a child, made the decision to kill my family, the respectable adults are saying selfish things and not facing reality. That's unforgivable.
To be honest, I might have been envious of the village residents whose infected families were still surviving. But I am not wrong. At the moment they lose their reason due to infection, that person is as good as dead.
If so, there is only one action to take. To make the person who is mentally dead physically dead as well.
"At the moment they're infected and their reason blows away, that person is dead. Why do we have to sacrifice innocent living humans for the sake of dead people? You people are just running away from facing reality, and you're just making excuses with plausible reasons."
"Shut up, what does a child know!"
"I think I know a lot more than the adults who have been living peacefully in this village until now without even killing their infected families!"
It had already become a game of verbal dodgeball. The villagers looked back and forth between Yamato and me, and the guards had their eyes wide at the unexpected development. Yamato turned bright red and pointed at me, saying "Silence him!".
If I don't listen, he'll silence me by force, huh. Don't mess with me. I muttered while glancing at the bald guy approaching with a syringe that likely contained anesthesia. At the same time, I felt the presence of the guard who had been thrusting a muzzle against my back until now moving to my side to pin me down.
I no longer had time to carry on an argument. If I miss this chance, I'll officially be made into food for the infected in front of me.
Fortunately, both legs were not restrained, and since both hands were tied in front, I can move my body quite a bit. I should be able to fight to some extent, and there's no problem with running.
The guard grabbed my shoulder and tried to make me stand up by force. At that moment, I raised the blade of the knife I had hidden in my palm and thrust it into the guard standing beside me.
I look forward to your opinions and impressions.